Colonization spread the ruleset of Dickensian era England all over the world, especially in the Americas where it led to the emergence of the largest and more t

Colonization spread the ruleset of Dickensian era England all over the world, especially in the Americas where it led to the emergence of the largest and more technologically advanced society in history: the USA. >Indeed the bulk of the benefits kick in post war - the period associated with the death of colonial empires. The post-war period replaced colonial empires underpinned by direct foreign rule with a different kind of foreign influence that is arguably better: Pax Americana which exerted US influence through US-led institutions that provide coordination amongst states, foreign aid and military protection. But you make a valid point that this period saw colonial rule dissipitate, and that correlated with significant improvement. There are so many data points to consider that any theory is mere speculation, including mine. Hard to know what an alternate history where the European powers refrained from engaging in colonialism would have led to, aside from cases like colonial America, where English settlement clearly produced massive gains for the world. I will say however that Western values have convincingly shown themselves to be beneficial to the world, and that the anti-colonialist mission to expel them from modern society and academic disciplines is therefore reckless and misguided.